Presently in semiconductor manufacturing facilities, semiconductor wafers are transported between various destinations, such as storage locations and processing stations, in closed containers. These containers are delivered to load ports at the desired storage location or processing station either manually or by an overhead hoist system. Once the containers have been delivered to the load port, a door on the container is removed before the wafers can be accessed.
Overhead hoist systems are advantageous in that they can be positioned out of the way of the processing stations and storage locations. Also, they do not block access to the facilities by personnel.
A semiconductor wafer carrier has on its bottom surface a kinematic coupling that interfaces with kinematic coupling pins specified by the SEMI E57 standard.